Weibo, one among China’s most well liked social media websites, stated the brand new pointers had been supposed to “create a bright and harmonious community environment”.

Within hours, the announcement have been learn thousands and thousands of occasions and shared greater than 100,000 occasions.

The hashtag “#IamGay”, in Madarin, started trending after hundreds of other folks posted it to rally in opposition to the ban. Others wrote “#Iambreakingthelaw”.

Weibo, which has similarities to Twitter in structure, perceived to then ban the hashtags and deleted lots of the 150,000-plus feedback associated with them.

The corporate’s Nasdaq stocks fell in price on Friday amid the debate.

In an replace on Sunday, Weibo stated the “clean-up” would “no longer target gay content.”

Censors will “primarily focus on pornographic and violent material,” the social community stated, including: “Thank you everyone for your discussions and suggestions.”

The corporate had in the past stated it used to be appearing in accordance with China’s cybersecurity regulations.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the rustic’s web regulator, has no longer commented.

But the People’s Daily, the legitimate paper of China’s ruling Communist Party, additionally perceived to criticise Weibo in a piece of writing on Sunday.

“Intellectually speaking, there should be a consensus around respecting other people’s sexual orientation,” the column stated, including that evaluating homosexuality to pornography and violence and referring to it as “abnormal” would move down badly with the general public.

Regulators had been ratcheting up keep watch over over Chinese microblogs in fresh months, ordering platforms like Weibo to arrange a mechanism to take away false knowledge and criticising them for permitting prohibited subject matter to unfold.

President Xi Jinping’s executive has been tightening keep watch over over what China’s public can see and say on-line whilst making an attempt to harvest the commercial advantages of web use.

Homosexuality used to be legalised in China in 1997 and few in the rustic have spiritual objections to it. However, a conventional, conservative desire for typical marriage and childbearing creates boundaries for LGBT other folks.

Following Weibo’s preliminary announcement on Friday, greater than 1,000,000 customers have seen hashtags in beef up of LGBT rights.

Hua Zile, the founding father of Voice for China LGBT, Weibo’s first LGBT-themed account, stated he used to be inspired through the common anger over the web site’s censorship plan.

“The response shows that we LGBT people in China are slowly realising our rights,” Mr Hua stated. “Gay people who would not have spoken out years ago are now letting their voices be heard.”

He stated a Weibo supervisor had informed him to forestall posting whilst the “clean-up” used to be going down.

He complied, and his announcement that Voice for China LGBT can be going on hiatus used to be shared just about 40,000 occasions.

After Weibo’s u-turn, Mr Hua known as on the company to apologise to the LGBT neighborhood.

“Like China, which has developed so quickly in such a short time, sex education in the country is a work in progress,” he stated.

On Sunday, an LGBT staff of greater than 100 other folks took section in a marathon in the town of Nanjing, conserving rainbow flags to boost consciousness of gay rights.

The staff had deliberate to participate in the marathon months in advance, however its organiser, Lucas Chen, stated Weibo’s announcement gave it “added significance.”

The primary purpose of becoming a member of the marathon used to be to “help everyone courageously come out of the closet,” Mr Chen stated. “So it was meaningful that people online were also bravely speaking out and showing that they were not defeated by negativity.”